The Real D-One Thread

If everything just comes down to price, why are we all not driving £5k Tata things and sailing round in home-built Mirrors or GP14s.

Something taught very early on in sales careers is the "value proposition". Something is worth what people are willing to pay for it. A Ford may be £15k, and a Ferrari £150k, but Ferrari only need to sell 3,000 cars a year, whereas Ford need to sell Millions, and guess who are more sucessful at making their sales targets?

When someone buys a Ferrari, they're not being sold £5k's worth of tin and glass, their being sold an image, a lifestyle, membersip of an elite club, etc. However if nobody was prepared o pay for that, it would fail, but there are 3,000 people who are each year, so happy days for the boys in Maranello.

In 90% of everything that everyone buys, price is not actually the key deciding factor, we simply justify our emothional purchases using the term "value".

 

Originally posted by turnturtle Ahh okay, just for clarity then: RS100 = epoxy glass over foam (riki/demo please clarify) RS Vareo = polyester resin over coremat (riki/demo?) MPS = epoxy glass over foam (rick p?) D-One = epoxy carbon over foam (rodders please clarify)

The D-One is of carbon/foam core construction but I don't think that Devoti would be happy if I give all of the details out on a public forum.  As Rick has indicated in an earlier post, that is only part of the story. The lay up plan and methods, curing cycles and all other aspects of building a boat contribute to it's quality, performance and longevity (read here resale values).  The D-One was designed around prime materials but some other designs may not fair so well if they were to be applied to them.  An example of this is the Finn;  if class rules allowed us to build Finns out of carbon they would, almost certainly, be slower than the current glass/vinylester construction as the Finn needs built in flexibility, in a Finn too stiff is slow! 

Back on topic, we are in the process of developing an optimal front deck giving a choice between the classic existing D-One and the hi-tech look D-One - see pictures below of the first shot at this - I will post on progress in the coming weeks.  This option will provide a boat with a more angular look and easer mounting for an electronic compass.

TT's comparisons may be simplifications, but I think there is some
useful / interesting stuff in there especially for the less clued up like
me. More detail is also good but isn't always relevant to decision-
making / purchasing, as Bob says. As a scientist myself, I am always
amazed that in buying things like boats I am well into the 'emotional
purchasing' area.

One other thing I like about the stuff from Luca et al are the ideas for
improving the racing / sailing experience and making it more fun. This
seems entirely positive to me. It has certainly been 'interesting' to see
the cultural differences (between UK and Italy) coming out in the
various reactions to the D1 - lets focus on the positive in this thread
and remember that the view from different cultures can genuinely be
different and valid, and sometimes surprising.    

Originally posted by alstorer Originally posted by rodney if class rules allowed us to build Finns out of carbon they would, almost certainly, be slower than the current glass/vinylester construction as the Finn needs built in flexibility, in a Finn too stiff is slow!  This sounds, with all due respect, like nonsense to me- the "received wisdom" of Finn sailors objecting to change and wanting to find reasons other than cost to justify keeping carbon/epoxy out (apologies for going back off topic) I don't think there's a small boat out there can't benefit from being stiffer.

Er!  Accusing me of posting nonsense - thank you! This is that last time we talk Finn on this thread - the reason that the Finn class bans carbon, other than for local re-inforcing is, for sure, for cost reasons.  As I said 'Finns out of carbon would, almost certainly, be slower than the current glass/vinylester construction as the Finn needs built in flexibility'.  The Finn needs to be flexible - fact!

Happy Chrismas!

Rodney

I think its a fair question, why would stiff be slower?

Edited by Noel D